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‘She took only one day off to go the funeral, because we wanted to keep things as normal for her as we could. But even if she’d taken a week off I’d be saying this.

Maddie's mother Gail had battled breast cancer for two years before she passed away in January this year

Maddie did not tell her father Andy (pictured on trip to London) about the trip until after it had happened

He added: ‘She got very upset when Gail passed away and at the funeral, but she’s just tried to get on with things. And after all that, she gets this kick in the face.

‘Her school should be celebrating what she’s achieved not saying “you can’t come on the school outing because your mum died”.

‘It’s not even about Frankie & Benny’s - my wife and I have said we’ll take her anytime - it’s the principle.’

Maddie said: ‘It made me feel sad not to be able to go because a few of my friends went.

‘It would have been a nice treat. Helping my mum out for the past two years has been hard.’

Gail, who was divorced from Mr Stevens, lived only a few streets away from her ex-husband and his current wife Deborah’s home Road in Exhall, Warwickshire.

By Christmas last year Maddie was staying at her dad’s more often to get used to the transition she would soon have to make.

Maddie pictured outside her school bus today, on her last day at St Giles' Junior School in Bedworth

Mr Stevens said: ‘In November, we were told it would be a matter of months before Gail would die.

‘We were really hoping it wouldn’t be at Christmas, and we tried to do our best for Maddie.

‘Gail’s birthday was on Boxing Day, so she was allowed out of Myton Hospice for that, but she was so sick she could hardly get off the settee.

‘When she went back in again after that, that was it - she didn’t come back out.’

Maddie’s very last Christmas present from her mother was the ice-skating lessons she had asked for.

Since her death, Maddie has dedicated herself to her skating, and has been accepted into the Coventry Blaze’s Ice Hockey Academy.

It is Maddie's last day at the junior school today and she is preparing to go into secondary school after the summer holidays.

Mr Stevens said: ‘It’s a big moment, leaving your junior school and moving on to the somewhere new.

‘It’s obviously a time when Maddie’s mum would have been with her to help.

‘Instead, she’s being punished for going to her mum’s funeral.

‘When she told me about it she was really angry, but I don’t think she really wanted to talk about it.

‘So we’re doing our best to make sure it doesn’t affect her too much.

‘It just makes me furious that the school didn’t think twice about Maddie’s situation.

‘I got more and more angry each time I think about it, and I’m amazed they didn’t apologise to Maddie. It feels like they’re now punishing us for complaining about it.’

A spokesman from St Giles’ Junior School said: ‘Following concerns raised, the rewarding of pupils for 100 per cent attendance has been withdrawn.’

Pupils were taken to a Frankie & Benny's restaurant as a treat (pictured is the nearby Nuneaton branch)

St Giles' Junior School in Bedworth, Warwickshire, where staff told Maddie Stevens she couldn't go on the trip because she did not have 100 per cent attendance. It was awarded a 'good' school rating by Ofsted this month

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Warwickshire school tells girl she can't go on Frankie & Benny's trip as she took day off for mother's funeral